


Six Times Doctor Rodney McKay Wrote A Letter To His Girlfriend (and one time he didn’t)

by Losyark



Series: Rodney's Numbers [3]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: AU, F/M, Mary Sue, ish, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-11-18
Updated: 2007-11-18
Packaged: 2018-01-12 05:48:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1182631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Losyark/pseuds/Losyark





	Six Times Doctor Rodney McKay Wrote A Letter To His Girlfriend (and one time he didn’t)

One:   
  
Rodney McKay stumbled back into his quarters and sat down hard on the end of his bed.   
  
Home.   
  
Safe.   
  
Filthy, he thought.   
  
He went and had a shower and didn’t close his eyes once because if he closed his eyes, he’d see the inside of that goddamned fucking Wraith cocoon. He stayed in the hot water until his scalp hurt from the water. Atlantis never rain out of hot water, but his body’d had enough.   
  
Carson had told him to sleep.   
  
What did Carson know, anyway?   
  
Rodney put on a fresh pair of civvie pants and the same sweater he’d been wearing on his last date with Jennifer. He went to his lab and stood in the door for a moment. The Wraith had been in here. With him.   
  
And he’d... told them things. And they had smiled like sharks and nodded and he thought he was the one playing them.   
  
Fucked it up, McKay, he thought.   
  
He didn’t turn on the light.   
  
He made the very last cup of vanilla caramel coffee and just held it between his shaking fingers. He sat down at his desk and inhaled the scent of the coffee as if it was the only thing keeping him from shaking apart.   
  
He drank all of the coffee in a single pull, barely tasting it but thrilled for its warmth. His fingers tingled and his eyes hurt and he... well, fuck, he really needed a hug.   
  
So he pulled open his drawer and he took one of the dwindling supply of kisses out of the bag that said, in Jennifer’s writing, “Wouldn’t want to waste it,” and then in his own, “Property of McKay. STEAL ONE AND BE PREPARED TO NEVER HAVE YOUR PLUMBING WORK EVER AGAIN.”   
  
He unwrapped the kiss carefully and placed it on his tongue and let it melt.   
  
Then he opened his laptop and began to type. **Dear Jenn, today I totally fucked up and nearly got everyone on Earth annihilated.** He highlighted and deleted that and tried again. **Dear Jenn, today I pretty much drew a map for hundreds of people (and I use that term loosely) who want to viciously desiccate the human race with a big ‘x’ right on top of where your apartment building is.**   
  
He highlighted and deleted that, too.   
  
**Dear Jenn,** he wrote. **God, I miss you. But I’m so glad you’re not here.**   


* * *

Two   
  
**Dear Jenn, today I got shot in the ass with an arrow. Carson says I’ll be fine. Scars are sexy, right? I like his drugs. There’s a tube in my nose. Love, Rodneysaurus Rex, King of the Lab.**   
  


* * *

  
Three:   
  
When Rodney McKay had to return to Earth to go brow-beat some sense into his sister, the first thing he did was go back to his apartment in Nevada. Nothing had changed, really. It was still sort of messy, only this time there was an even thicker layer of dust over everything. He still didn’t have time to clean.   
  
Rodney checked up on his cat, and he packed some fresh civvies, and he tossed out all his junk mail. He jammed all the back issues of his science journals along with some fresh shirts into a carry-on. He double-checked that the Asguard transporter beacon was in his pocket.   
  
He popped out to the corner store to buy some chocolates and some Doritos because oh, god, did he miss Doritos. He had made a shopping list of snack foods to bring back with him to Atlantis, but that could wait until after he had talked to Jeannie. Sheppard had not so subtly and in a different colour of pen, added “POPCORN” to the bottom.   
  
Rodney had arrived on Earth in Colorado, but his stuff was in Nevada and his sister was in a bedroom community outside of Toronto, so the Air Force had given him a few tickets for airplanes.   
  
That was one of the nice things about working for a top secret project. Free air-fare.   
  
Of course, he had argued that they should just send him with the Daedalus’ transporters, but Carter had told him that the Air Force wasn’t a chauffeuring service and he should just drive his own damned self.   
  
She was still sore about the “blue-eyes” comment.   
  
Rodney decided that instead of taking a cab to the airport, he would take his car. That way, he could stop for coffee.   
  
As it turned out, the new barista at Starbucks was a moron.   
  
She was not Jennifer.   
  
She put a full shot of vanilla in his coffee and didn’t use two percent milk. Rodney called her every horrible thing he could think of in English, then added a few Russian, Czech, and Athosian cusses just for good measure.   
  
It was gratifying to see tears in her eyes. It made him feel like he was back in the labs in Atlantis again.   
  
“Hey, stranger,” someone said in the line behind Rodney, and he turned.   
  
“Jennifer,” he said.   
  
She smiled, the sketchbook tucked under her arm. “You’re back in town.”   
  
Rodney grimaced. “Sudden business trip back. I have to go bash some heads in.”   
  
“Which you like,” Jennifer pointed out.   
  
“I love every second of it.”   
  
A small pause.   
  
“So, were you going to call me?” The tone was light, but her eyes were not.   
  
Oops. And there it was. That look in her eye.   
  
But Rodney had an answer for that one. He dug into his blazer pocket and pulled out a brand new bag of chocolate kisses. Then he handed her a letter that he had put together on the flight to Nevada. It consisted of every single doodle he’d done on post-it notes in the past year.   
  
Jennifer smiled.   
  


* * *

  
Four   
  
Over dinner, Jeannie started to get on Rodney’s case about dating: “Have you met anyone? Are there even girls where you work? Have you been eating right? You should exercise, girls like buff guys. When are you going to settle down? I want to be an aunt.”   
  
“I have a long distance relationship,” Rodney snapped back. “And FYI, I just spent the last twenty-four hours having glorious, chocolaty sex with her.”   
  
Jeannie’s eyes got big and her mouth snapped shut so fast her teeth clicked. She went silent for a brief moment, and that was gratifying.   
  
“What’s sex?” Madison asked, spearing a piece of tofu-chicken with her fork.   
  
Rodney decided not to put that part in his next letter.   
  


* * *

  
Five   
  
Rodney hated Rod.   
  
Hate. Hated his stupid simpering smile and his stupid leather coat (and how fair was it that Rod’s Atlantis’ uniforms are all leather coats?) and his stupid sticky-up hair. He hated that Rod had breakfast with Jeannie, and golfed with John, and jogged with Ronan, and stick-fought with Teyla, or was a god-father.   
  
Not that Rodney enjoyed being up early enough for breakfast, or golfing, or jogging, or stick-fighting, or being a god-father.   
  
It’s the principal of the thing.   
  
So when Rod cornered him in his quarters to “talk”, Rodney sat sulkily at his desk and glared while Rod paced back and forth, hands zooming about in familiar patterns and babbled about how it’s so interesting that little choices made the universes change so much.   
  
But then he saw the Rodneysaur picture and stopped.   
  
“Who drew you that?” Rod asked, stepping over to the wall to peer at it. “It’s good. Am I--? Are you eating Kavanagh?”   
  
“Jennifer,” Rodney said. “And yes.”   
  
“Who?”   
  
Oh, Rodney thought. And then, Oh! Yes! Ha ha! “The barista at the Starbucks near Area 51?” Rodney prompted and Rod went a little white. “She’s my girlfriend.”   
  
“She ... wouldn’t go out with me,” Rod said under his breath.   
  
In his head, Rodney is dancing a jubilant bunny hop. His face looked sympathetic. “Oh?”   
  
Rod coughed and said something and Rodney thought it sounded like, “ShesaidIwasslimeyandtoomuchlikeCaptainKirk,” before he beat an un-suave retreat.   
  
Rodney smiled and brought up a fresh word document.   
  


* * *

  
Six  
  
 **Dear Jenn**  
  
Uh, so. Where I am right now... is, uh, apparently going to be turned back over to the people who... um, originally built it. So. I guess I’m going to be transferred back. Maybe to Nevada, I don’t know. Probably to Colorado.   
  
If I move back, do you think maybe you want to share an apartment with me and Mr. Jinx in Colorado? The mountains don’t totally suck. Would the animation company let you do that? You can fax character designs, right?   
  
Love, Rodney   



End file.
